 In Episode 13 of his Film ist. series, as in previous chapters, Austrian filmmaker Gustav Deutsch reassembles bits and pieces of celluloid culled from archives across Europe.* He also explores new territory by incorporating films collected at the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. He blends scenes from silent stag films with other silent-era footage (and one German sound film) to create a makeshift avant-garde narrative. Deutsch's latest installment opens the 7th Orphan Film Symposium, with the filmmaker and his partner Hanna Schimek in attendance. The title is taken from D. W. Griffith's perhaps apocryphal utterance that one only needs "a girl and a gun" to make a film. The phrase was passed on to a new generation of cineastes by Jean-Luc Godard. --------------------------- *Bundesarchiv Filmarchiv, Centre National de la Cinematographie, Cinematheque de Toulouse, Cineteca di Bologna, Filmarchiv Austria, F. W. Murnau Stiftung, Imperial War Museum, Museo National del Cinema di Turino, Narodni Filmovy Archiv (Prague), Nederlands Filmmuseum, and Oesterreichisches Filmmuseum Film ist. (1-6) (1998, 60 min.) Film ist. (7-12) (2002, 93 min.) Film ist. a girl & gun (2009, 93 min.)
Credits: Director, writer, editor: Gustav Deutsch Producer: Manfred Neuwirth Research: Hanna Schimek, Gustav Deutsch Supervisory Artist: Hanna Schimek, Production: loop media Distributor: sixpackfilm.com Music: Christian Fennesz, Martin Siewert, Burkhard Stangl Additional Music: Bohren & Der Club of Gore, David Grubbs, Olga Neuwirth, Lucia Pulido, Eva Reiter, Soap & Skin
Resources: www.gustavdeutsch.net  Wilbirg Brainin-Donnenberg and Michael Loebenstein, eds. Gustav Deutsch (Austrian Film Museum, 2009) with contributions by Linda Williams, Tom Gunning, Scott MacDonald, Nico de Klerk, and Alexander Horwath. 240 pages. Manohla Dargis, "In Old Clips, a Paradise Found and Lost," New York Times, Dec. 2, 2009.  Cullen Gallagher, "Tale of Cinema," The L Magazine, May 1, 2009. Teri Tynes, "Gustav Deutsch and the Art of Found Footage," Media Everywhere, a re:frame blog, May 6, 2009. J. Hoberman, "The Order of the Universe in Film Ist. a girl & gun," Village Voice. Dec. 1, 2009. A fragment of the film is viewable at www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrqKPqTHGU8. Available on DVD. |